The Metropolitan Water District in southern California has planned for years for droughts and has the only full reservoirs in the state, Castaic and Pyramid. They did this by raising water rates and deliberately buying surplus water. Lots of water districts who didn’t plan nearly so carefully will be wanting MWD to share. This will quickly become political dynamite, exacerbating the north-south split in California over water. (The northern part of the state has most of the water, the south wants as much of it as it can get.) Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for twin tunnels to send water southward from the Sacramento Delta financed by a bond measure on the ballot this November further complicates the issues.

After confirming the southland, including the San Diego region, is taken care of, Metropolitan intends to work with other agencies and the state on how to assist bone-dry regions.

MWD can’t really send vast amounts of water elsewhere. Contractual agreements limit what they can send. Water can’t flow uphill and backwards to Central Valley agriculture. Plus, of course, they have to take care of their own water customers. The recent rains in northern California were welcome. However they did nothing to lessen the drought. Until it rains in torrents for days, the drought will continue.